Is it why we cannot attain maximum mental performance?

If you are one of those people who are unsatisfied with their foreign language competence after many years of hard work, practice, and exposure, then this article may be for you. Even though research in foreign language learning enumerates several factors for foreign language failure – social, psychological, cognitive and affective – whose roles cannot be overlooked, my own view is somewhat different: I firmly believe that one of the main reasons why so many people cannot attain maximum performance, not only in foreign languages but also in other subjects, is largely because of “mental pollution.” This is why, I think, children are superior to adults at learning foreign languages, for they are devoid of severe mental pollution.

Let me first clarify what I mean by “mental pollution.” Certain images of different sizes, qualities, and shapes displayed on billboards, shop windows, posters, brochures, magazines, ads, TV, movies, videos, websites – these are mental pollution. Depending on their form and characteristic, they may greatly abuse a person’s mental energy and lead to chaotic and disturbing emotions. The more irrelevant, enticing, or lustful images are, the more detrimental they are to our social and academic life. For example, a small logo of a computer game – perhaps the size of a 5 cent coin – such as the dragon from Mortal Kombat, contains at minimum three kilobytes (3072 characters), which is equal to about 400 English words. Despite the premise that we only use 8-10 percent of our mental capacity, the amount of visual data the human brain is permanently exposed to cannot be underestimated when so many people, especially children, watch TV, play computer games, and surf the internet. Obscene pictures, in particular, are a common form of mental pollution nowadays, and they are some of the most deleterious to the human mind; they drastically increase blood pressure and heart rate and thus weaken the memory. As an example, a study by Brad J. Bushman has apparently revealed that watching violent television programs has adverse effects on one’s ability to remember.

Fethullah Gülen, a renowned modern Islamic intellectual, reminds us of the seriousness of the topic, while more people than ever before complain about forgetfulness and memory weakness. According to Gülen, the process of learning now takes longer than in the past, and forgetfulness, like an infection, has become prevalent among all levels of society due to polluted minds teeming with irrelevant information. He also points out that long ago people complained when they were not able to memorize and recite by heart a page after only one reading. In this day and age, people complain about weak memory and confess that they have great difficulty memorizing a short text that they have read more than 20 times. For a keen memory, his message to the present generation is to stay away from useless routines, frivolous conversations, irrelevant knowledge, and sources of obscenity.

Similar to a computer, the untrained human mind whose protection filter is set to a low level is under constant visual attack. Given this, mental pollution acts like a computer virus, a code that replicates by copying itself to another program, document, or e-mail, thereby seriously slowing down memory operations. Also, it can erase data or damage the computer’s hard disk, which is analogous to long-term memory in the human brain. Interestingly enough, lab experiments on rats have revealed that these animals simply choose to starve to death when they are tempted by brain reward-stimulus circuits in quests for neuro-orgasms. These rats rarely attain balanced brain chemistry, while the orgasm they experience results in a hangover that lasts for weeks. The same condition is also true for the human mind: the unnecessary over-discharge of hormones triggered by electrifying visual stimuli can lead to long-lasting forgetfulness, fatigue, and serious concentration problems. In such a case, a person cannot make sense of whatever he is studying until the side effects of mental pollution are over.

Foreign language learning also substantially suffers from the harmful effects of copious amounts of mental pollution. The modern methodology and technology to facilitate foreign language learning can be hampered by overwhelming exposure to mental pollution. Although they did not have the contemporary language learning resources and facilities, many early scholars and polyglots managed to learn numerous foreign languages. For instance, Guiseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, an Italian cardinal and famed linguist, is believed to have spoken 38 languages and 50 dialects fluently. Similarly, Sir John Bowring (100), Emil Krebs (68), Ziad Youssef Fazah (56), Ali Ufki (16), Muhammad Hamidullah (22), Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (13), Jose Rizal (22), and Sir Richard Francis Burton (29) were able to speak and read in many languages and dialects, as shown in parentheses, and their success is considerably astonishing when we compare them to present academics who have problems at mastering only one foreign language despite the available modern resources. I believe that these past scholars and polyglots, besides their talent and enthusiasm, did not suffer from widespread mental pollution as we do today. For example, the polyglot Mezzofanti was a prodigy in languages mostly because he spent his life in a monastery and therefore was not subject to any form of mental pollution that could preoccupy his mind and weaken his memory.

I am greatly convinced that an oft-overlooked but very serious barrier – mental pollution – which is very common among people, is a crucial reason for many people’s failure to learn a foreign language, among other subjects. In any discipline (academic or non-academic) where memory involvement is important, it is necessary to be aware of mental pollution. As long as we are unable to control our contact with mental pollution, learning new material will be very difficult and time-consuming, no matter how hard we try, and forgetfulness will continue to be unavoidable.

In fact, such a journey is not specific to humanity: all creatures come into being in order to go through a difficult journey according to their level. And then they keep flowing into different molds and undergoing constant transformations until they reach their own identity; sometimes, they even transform into a second existence. They do this through pain, suffering, death, and resurrection, a few times in every moment.

Water cannot vaporize and attain purity without the challenge of the heat; a seed cannot sprout and rise to a higher life form without cracking and decomposing. Rivers cascade down and hit rocks to become as pure as the raindrops of a cloud. Spring does not come without winter. Even if it did, it would not be appreciated. Gold owes its value and brightness, and steel owes its hardness and durability, to the melting pots they were formed in. A bone dry land revives and serves as a bed for thousands of flowers in proportion to the amount of lightning flashing over it. Darkness cocoons light in its bosom, to its own disadvantage. Winter always weaves its canvas for the benefit of spring. Hence, a spring follows every winter, and a day follows every night. Deaths are for resurrection, and sufferings are for attaining a more beautiful life. By dying and resurrecting thousands of times throughout their lives, individuals are freed from the dark and deceiving pressures of the “ego” and reach eternity in their soul. A community ripens, matures, and attains immortality through the sufferings it undergoes and by clawing its way against the troubles it faces.

What a pleasure it is to die and resurrect time and again in order to attain eternal existence! How enjoyable it is to consider every blow a warning, telling us to come to our senses! What a great heroism it is to maintain hope and embrace the future in the face of so many misfortunes! Those who live their lives with faith and consciousness fly away through this journey of tribulations with wings of hope, under the bright light of their thoughts, through this land of trials and its seas of pus and blood. They are aware that they have come here to be distilled and purified. And they know that they can be skinned like the great Sufi Nesimi (d. 1417) or executed like Mansur (d. 922). Since they welcome both divine wrath and grace, and since they see the cure within the affliction, they watch what befalls them with pleasure and admiration, and they never panic. Every new misfortune becomes a plectrum, sounding out different tunes in their hearts and invigorating them with fresh excitements. For them, sufferings are no different than snowstorms on high mountaintops. They are nothing unusual. We can even say that living without suffering at all becomes an irresistible torment for them; it would mean their death. This is particularly true if their people are suffering and their values are being destroyed!

The most glorious servants of God did not spend a moment without suffering with such concerns. The same can be said for those who guided their nations to light: Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 767), one of the immortal guides of humanity with his fresh ideas and well-placed comments, was subjected to a raw deal and thrown into prison; he endured a life of suffering. Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855) was mistreated like a worthless person and underwent the meanest tortures – and this lasted for years! Sarahsi (d. 1096) wrote his masterpiece Al-Mabsut in the bottom of the well in which he was imprisoned. And there were many more who suffered …

As those mature souls were subjected to tortures, as if they were being squeezed in presses, their blessed heads reached the realms beyond the heavens, and they became infinite sources of light with their enlightened hearts on the path to the revival of their people. People like Campanella (d. 1639), Cervantes (d. 1616), and Dostoyevsky (d. 1881) discovered themselves in captivity and reached immortality in the hearts of their people.

Everybody who bears the thought of serving humanity must know that the duty is sacred; the journey is long; the roads are steep; and different evils await them on this road. At every corner they will face death. They will be insulted, as if they were contemptible criminals, and most of the time they will be deprived of their right to live like human beings. They should be dedicated to this blessed cause with such awareness. Otherwise, some immature and heedless souls might change their course and direction due to petty hardships and deprivations.

O, you lazy soul! You expect it to rain without any thunder; you expect greenery without any seeds being cracked and no grains being sacrificed! You expect mothers to deliver babies, but without any labor pains! Namely, you expect the general course of divine destiny and order, in spite of its splendid wisdom, to be shaped according to your personal considerations. No! You have not come to this world for fun, for living according to your fancies and fantasies. You have come for the sake of realizing your inherent human potentials and cultivating the exalted qualities in your essence, for the sake of your inner enlightenment. So that you may become a mirror to reflect the divine, you will be put into melting pots many times over and burned in fire; you will be pushed through barrels of needles and undergo many trials!

These are the rules of the way, and the rest is futile and deceptive!

“Do not, then, be faint of heart, nor grieve,
For you are always the superior side if you are (true) believers.”

Here is the reviving breath to cure hearts!

He is the one who knows the sorrows of broken hearts, who alleviates incurable troubles, and who eliminates the loneliness and depression in our souls with breezes from His realm. Those who turn to Him turn to an opened door; those who supplicate to Him have realized the very purpose of existence.

Those who recognize Him through His works, those who truly know and feel Him through their consciences, need to learn nothing else. In the minds of those who attain knowledge of Him, pieces of that knowledge become crystal domes over diamond pillars. For the souls who do not recognize Him, knowledge is apprehension and all existence we explore with science becomes nothing more than a collection of lifeless bodies.

In the radiant climate of belief, all creation becomes clear as water, from beginning to end; thoughts and events become distilled and everything flows to Him. Those who turn and implore Him with such pure feelings and thoughts are the most fortunate among us.

Given this, wherever we are in the world, whatever the time of day, whenever we feel lonely, let us turn to Him with our whole being, open the doors of our heart to Him, and one by one, confide in Him our sufferings, pains, desires, and wishes, great or small. Then we will feel our pain alleviated, our suffering replaced with contentment, and our souls will be enveloped by the breezes of Divine favors.

Those who confine themselves within the material world will likely never feel Him. Still, with thousands of signs for those who see, He will make His presence felt in our consciences, that He is not distant, and make our hearts smile.

Nights are openings to such inspirations. The souls awakened to the truth, who turn their hearts into bright mirrors shining with Divine epiphanies, wait for blessings to pour on their prayer rugs. We, too, can watch for the surprise blessings of the night, even when we are alone. Such moments can be our time of reunion, when we can stand in His presence and open up the secrets of our heart to Him. Only share your troubles with Him, moan in His presence, and bring your head to prostration, which is the first threshold on the path leading to Him, and wait! Then you will feel doors opening to your heart, one after the other. You will melt under the lights of His being; your respective presence will vanish like a drop falling into the ocean, and in a zone beyond considerations, you will become one being united with the gigantic waves.

The deeper you allow yourself to fall into Him, the deeper the realms that will open to you, and the higher the peaks you will scale. If you set sail to these inner depths with full conviction, you’ll think you’ve skirted the eternity of Paradise, the pristine atmosphere of the realms beyond. With every new step, you will see a different favor of being closer to God.

The souls who see nothing but the material reality and fail to attain the many levels of greatness, magnificence, and inner depth will continue to stagger in darkness, never managing to break free of deprivations and depression.

If only they, too, could feel the depths within their soul, as deep as clear skies and as vast as the universe. If only they, too, could discover the light inside them, and use that light to illuminate the secrets of our Creator’s realms.

Some fail to find these radiant ways which exist as a seed inside them and lead a life unaware of this lofty truth. They fail to blossom and are trapped in physical longevities instead of discovering roads to eternity. I do not know if we should feel pity for them or pray that their eyes open to truth.

Believers have hearts that are rich and spacious—with room and prosperity enough to welcome all, offering bowls of love and embracing others with compassion. They share the blessings of their closeness to God with those with whom their paths cross, and strive to inspire their souls. One can see them at times joyous, even intoxicated with dreams of the day they will encounter the Real; other times, they are anxious in fear of the Divine, shivering in the thrill of such a splendid reunion. They see through the mist and smoke of hatred and revenge; they do not feel the thunder, gusts and waves of jealousy or slander that hit their soul and disperse, nor are they depressed by palpitations from the misery caused by adverse circumstance. They are in a lofty Presence, and all incompatibilities are deleted from their imaginations and thoughts-their hearts, spirits, and feelings are purified and clear. Verily, there can be no other condition for those who cleanse themselves of impurities several times a day. There can be no rips in the canvas of their graceful souls as long as their inner spheres have been filled with bliss that descends from beyond; their behavior corresponds to the affluence and wisdom thereof. Their path is well-set, their destination lofty, and none of these are to be bartered for. With commitment to their faith, they acknowledge the great ones as great, and the smaller ones as a rose to be smelled with compassion. Everything is classified properly in the taxonomy of values.

Believers maintain their distance from plans and projects that are unrelated to their high ideals, confused thoughts that do not ultimately lead to the Supreme One, profane behavior, or empty words and considerations. They are active in thinking when they are silent; their speech is remembrance and all of their outward and inward faculties are locked onto the One. They are complaisant, as deep and pure as an angel ready to soar. Their motivation is head-spinning, but respectful toward the Exalted Station to which they have turned; they are judicious enough not to prioritize their personal plans or projects as highly as an ideal. Their eyes observe the horizons; their endeavors are powerful enough to pierce mountains. Believers are men and women of insight, and while they are stimulated by an intense desire to introduce the beautiful patterns of belief to others, they are also aware of the necessary subtlety their works involve.

Believers make their brief lifetimes long enough to build this world and to invest in the next. They do not waste even the smallest of the many innate blessings bestowed upon them; they do not busy themselves with useless things that promise nothing for this world or the world to come. They can give away all that has been bestowed on them for the pleasure of the One while scrupulously making sure a single penny is not wasted. They pay strict attention to righteousness and to what is lawful and what is forbidden. All that they do, they do within the framework of raising the glory of the One’s name, so that all their actions become heavenly waterfalls and rivers. They live cautiously and thoughtfully, searching for possible means to convert one drop into an ocean or claim the sun with an atom. They strive to eternalize transient things.

Believers love for the sake of the One; they breathe love and kindle love all around. They rush to stop tears and agony, they apply antidotes to pain, they transform weeping to laughter, moaning to praise, and storms of fire to breezes of pleasure. They scream to stop the screams of the world and their tears flow like rivers. They develop self-esteem only if it means something to others, thus preferring “us” over “me.” They are not selfish but altruistic; they are not drowned in corporeality, but are soulful and absorbed in the truth that lies beyond. They do not allow their hearts to be hidden in their bodies or their spirits trampled under their corpses. They seek a prophetic dignity and protection from sin. Champions of discipline, believers are content with the pleasures and tastes within the lawful domain—they outperform their carnal selves and sensuality, reach the respective horizons of their spirit and overcome each obstacle with one single move, God willing.

Believers are so firmly determined to represent good conduct and prevent mischief and hideousness that they race beside the angels, who say, “All-Glorified You are (in that You are absolutely above having any defect or doing anything meaningless, and Yours are all the attributes of perfection). We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.” Such believers never abuse the blessings that are innately bestowed in contradiction to the purpose of their creation; they are loyal and God honors them with His company in turn.

Existence per se is a trust to every individual, and it is to be equipped with noble human values. Aspiring to Heaven, having the capacity, realizing the method to attain the same, and potentially being able to encounter the beauty of the One-these are each a trust bestowed to human beings in order to set them on the path determined by the Almighty Creator. Committing sins, straying from the path, and leading a life of sensuality are treacherous acts that crush such innate blessings; they delight the devils and embarrass the residents of the Divine Abode.

Believers of mature faith use their initial gifts as a means to attain further blessings of servanthood to God, His proximity, and His good pleasure, as an indication of their true identity. Those with weak or nonexistent faith cannot comprehend the gifts or their meaning, and thus cannot benefit from them in the course of belief, divine knowledge, and love; they will be deprived from secondary and eternal favors.

The latter group not only neglects the afterlife, but its constituents are discontent in this life as well. They must endure many additional problems and their lack of faith leads to depression. They destroy their own peace with hysteria and paranoia, and transform this world, which is an aisle to the illuminated realms beyond, into Hell. They cannot truly love others; they hate them and hatred is what they receive in return. They agonize with avarice and lament with longing for what they cannot obtain. They tremble out of fear of death and undergo many tribulations in order to live longer, frequently leading to health problems and mental disorder. White becomes black, good becomes bad, and vice versa. Those who do not think like them are enemies and traitors. Nightmares of betrayal engulf their sleep, causing even more suffering, as the seeds of the Hell in their conscience bring about the experience of the actual Hell in advance.

True believers, on the other hand, ameliorate each favor in abundance, like an ear of grain producing as many as seven, seventy, or seven-hundred more grains. Each of these favors becomes a staircase ascending to the One, a ramp to attain His good pleasure. Then believers march to their destination together with the inheritors of the Heavens.

Human life in this world is a composite of two distinct powers, the spirit and the flesh. Although it is sometimes the case that these two powers act in harmony, conflict between them is more usual, conflict of a kind in which the victory of one results in the defeat of the other. In an individual who vigorously indulges bodily lusts, the spirit grows more powerless as it becomes more obedient to those lusts; however, in another individual, one who has given the spirit dominance over the flesh, in whom the heart (the seat of spiritual intellect) has power over reason, and who vigorously opposes the bodily lusts, it attains eternity.

The secret of attaining the eternal life of the spirit

Every part of a spiritually bankrupt country can be likened to a graveyard, no matter how many hundreds of triumphal arches and statues adorn its thoroughfares. The mass of people living in such a country are in reality blind and unfortunate, and a world not built on the breath of the spirit is nothing but the plaything of human violence. A culture which has not developed an ethos that encourages virtue is like an evil sorceress who has ambushed humanity. However, it may never be possible to persuade coarse, insensitive people of this, people who pay no attention to anything except their own pleasures, who have become incapable of considering their lives as connected with the well-being and happiness of others. If only such people had some perception of the mystery of their own deaths, they might yet attain the eternal life of the spirit.

Only those who have filled their hearts with the most sublime ideals and love of humanity will lead a spiritual life so as to attain eternity in their very selves. These fortunate people transcend their carnal desires, grow spiritually alert and attain victory over the commands of the self.

Only the person who overcomes his or her self can rightly be called powerful and victorious. The miserable individuals who have not been able to release themselves from captivity to the self are liable to defeat even if they have conquered the entire world. Moreover, we cannot give to their conquest of the world the name of “victory,” since their permanent presence in the lands they have invaded is an impossibility.

Real heroes

Napoleon was in the madness of esteeming himself sole ruler of the world. I wonder whether he was able to grasp that his real failure was when he slapped a philosopher and this was more bitter and humiliating than his defeat at Waterloo. In the person of that philosopher he actually slapped knowledge and virtue. Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon had been inwardly defeated before his army was put to flight at Vienna. This first defeat in Ottoman history showed itself in the spirit of the commander in chief, then spread far and wide among his forces, and not only caused him to lose his head, but allowed the greatest army of conquest the world had yet known to experience flight. Yildirim Khan, Bayazid I, was not defeated in Cubuk, but on the day when he belittled his opponent and hailed himself as sole ruler of the world. And there have been many others like these…

But we have positive examples too. Tariq ibn Ziyad was victorious, not when he defeated the Visigoths’ army of ninety thousand men with a handful of self-sacrificing valiants, but when he stood before the wealth and treasures of the king and said, “Be careful, Tariq. You were a slave yesterday. Today you are a victorious commander. And tomorrow you will be under the earth.”

Salahuddin Ayyubi’s generous treatment of Richard I astonished and embarrassed the arrogant commander. Alp Arslan conducted himself in peace and mercy towards Romanus IV Diogenes. Likewise, Kilic Arslan released all the crusaders captured during the battle at Antalya Castle. All these examples of humane and noble behavior are in fact the victory of the sublime spirit.

The enormous army of Mehmed II (the Conqueror) owed its success to the power of faith and the spirit. Mehmed II never relied on physical power; rather, he represented spiritual power as well as his military genius. Otherwise, his entry to Istanbul would have been no different than Caesar’s entry into Rome; but Mehmed II entered the capital of Byzantium in a manner of forgiveness, tolerance and justice just like Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, upon the conquest of Mecca.

Selim I regarded the world as too small for two rulers. He was truly victorious, not when he crowned some kings and dethroned others, but when he entered the capital in silence while its people were asleep so as to avoid their enthusiastic welcome and applause for his victories. He was also victorious when he ordered that the robe which had been spattered with mud by the horse of his teacher be draped over his coffin because it had been honored. The Roman commander Cato was victorious and made a place for himself in his people’s memory, not when he defeated the Carthaginians, but when he handed his horse and command over to the Roman Emperor, saying, “I fought to serve my nation. Now my duty is fulfilled, I am going back to my village.” And all the while his army was entering Carthage, the capital city of Rome’s enemy and rival, in triumph.

To transcend selfishness

Sacrificing one’s enjoyment of worldly pleasures has the same significance for human progress as the roots of a tree have for its growth. Just as a tree grows sound and strong in direct relation to the soundness and strength of its roots, so too a human being grows to perfection while striving to free himself or herself from selfishness and instead to live only for others.

We must look at history in order to find examples of real heroes since it is full of stories of great individuals. For instance, history tells us of the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, whom it finds carrying a sack of flour in public as soon as he felt a little pride in his heart. We have such heroes who effectively conducted armies and ruled countries during the day while they spent the night in remembrance of God. Those fortunate ones able to maintain a spiritual life no matter what their duties always appeared within the same tradition.

It is essential for an individual to overcome the carnal self. The idea of the “greater jihad” or “struggle against the carnal self” is the starting point of this struggle which gradually affects all the conduct of human beings. This idea also teaches the person how to become invincible against the self. Only those who have attained a victorious spirit can dominate all types of materialistic power in the Universe. In contrast, those who are captured by the self are liable to defeat and regarded as miserable even if they conquer the world. Therefore, the heroes we have mentioned here are different than others. Indeed, real heroes and victorious commanders attained triumph because of the victory of the spirit in their very selves.

To conclude, those who are deprived of sublime ideals and who cannot overcome their personal pleasures cannot be called victorious even if they conquer the entire world. In this case, their temporary success unfortunately results in their everlasting defeat. The only way to transform possible defeats into eternal victories is to attain the victory of the spirit. The crowned heads of the future will be those fortunate ones who have attained felicity through victories of the spirit.

having fixed their hearts upon the Light

they set out for eternity.

And wherever the journey led, they carried

their gift of radiance

Gleams of Beauty

unfading so entranced their souls,

they heard at night in their dreams

angels singing of bliss and the music

of other worlds.

More enchanted ,

more earnestly they searched in every place,

and cherished for their homeland the dream

of a beloved of matchless excellence, hero

or saint or both.

Without let our pause

they strove on in high, passionate hope;

some perplexities of life they unravelled

as they journeyed apace, and at last obtained

the promised happiness.

Lovers of the Light

are pledged to a long journey, its end Unseen;

the very roads are proud upon which they go;

the rhythm of their going is Certainty, and their rank

slaves of the King .

Whoever disdains

that rank, disdains his own good fortune,

exchanging hope for a regret everlasting;

he shall not attain, not ever, the further rim

of all that is.

Only the lovers,

passionate lovers of the Ideal, may behold

that far horizon, eternity itself impressed

upon their faces, and their names rehearsed

in hymns of praise.

They desire life

again only to be martyred again, hearts

forever surrendered to the Light, forever

remembered in our hearts. They raise now

light-filled eyes,

in their hands are translucent beakers

held aloft, at ease, filled to the brim from

rivers of Paradise.

***

Virtues such as sincerity (ikhlas¹), loyalty, refraining from backbiting or suspicion² are among the essentials of good conduct every believing person must adopt. I think everybody agrees on that. However, my personal assumptions do not mean much in practical life. What matters is each individual’s adopting this understanding and striving for its establishment in society. Naturally, this cannot be expected to happen all of a sudden.

Internalizing good or bad conduct as part of our nature is a very long process.

The most important point to pay attention to is our actual determination on the matter. Take sincerity for instance. It is something that almost everyone who regularly prays requests from God in their prayers day and night. We pray to God saying, “O God, please make me attain sincerity in faith, or make me one of those whom You have rendered sincere.” But how sincere are we in our wish? Being a loyal servant to God and attaining sincerity in faith… how important are these for us? How deeply do we ask for-and this is another dimension of sincerity in faith-attaining the good pleasure of God? Even if we mention it in our words, what about our actions for the sake of achieving that? While making a decision about a matter in real life, from marriage to having children, or continuing with our job or not, are we able to comfortably say that we make our decisions in the direction which we think pleasing to God? Can we even say we prefer the good pleasure of God over Paradise-though they are not opposite things-or over viewing the “Face” of God? We can extend the questions in this direction. Now, if we are not able to choose sincerity and what is pleasing to God, and if we are not acting in the way that we prayed for, then it definitely means we are being disrespectful toward God, or worse, it means that we are “lying against God.” In the Qur’an (Anam 6:21) fabricating a lie against God is mentioned as the ultimate wrong.

If we do not really wish to attain virtues like sincerity, the good pleasure of God, loyalty, and faithfulness as much we wish to marry, have children, have worldly possessions-a car, a house, a summerhouse and so on-or to have our business run smoothly… or if these virtues do not have as great a place in our hearts as the worldly matters, please let us not be disrespectful against God and let us avoid paying lip service about being sincere in faith. Attaining the good pleasure of God is an incomparably greater aim than any other. So, we should not hold these worldly matters, which we are supposed to keep under our feet, at the same level as attaining the good pleasure of God. As I repeat many times over, we need to value matters of this world and the next as they deserve.

What I have explained so far is only one aspect of the issue. Another aspect is that we should not fail to ask for high virtues in our prayers. There might seem to be a conflict between this sentence and what I have previously said. In fact, there is no conflict at all. The issue explained above points toward a certain perspective and provides us with a target. Until reaching that target, a natural process will be experienced as mentioned at the beginning. While proceeding toward the target, the one thing we should never give up is praying. Praying sets a target for us, it feeds the conscience, lets our hearts take wing, makes us comprehend the finiteness of our power, and makes us feel a need to take refuge in an Omnipotent One. As Nursi puts it, supplicating to God in a heartfelt and sincere way is already a profound form of worship in itself. Sooner or later, God accepts the prayers of people who believe in such a way.

I would like to cite two examples here concerning how prayers set targets for us. Here is the first example: One day God’s Messenger saw Abu Umama al-Bahili sitting in the mosque, looking shaken. When he asked for the reason, the reply was “poverty.” Upon hearing this, the Prophet taught him the following prayer:

“O God, I take refuge in You from worry, grief, incapacity, sloth, cowardice miserliness, the burden of debt, and subjugation by men.” We can consider these one by one and see how each sets a target in order to free oneself from poverty:

“I take refuge in You from worry, grief….” Now think about it please. Does someone who wishes to be free from worry and grief just sit there and worry? Does he get entangled in things that lead him to grief? Or, on the contrary, does such a person get up and seek ways to overcome them?

“…from incapacity, sloth….” Complaining about poverty and passively sitting in the mosque-even if it is the Prophet’s Mosque-this just means incapacity and sloth, doesn’t it?

“…cowardice, miserliness,” and finally “the burden of debt, and subjugation by men.” As it is seen, every component of this prayer sets a target for a person who suffers from poverty and takes refuge in the mosque and shows him the ways to free himself from that situation. After that phase, what falls to the individual is to put into action what he prayed for.

The second example is about one of my childhood memories. My father once told me that “anyone who recites the sura Nasr (Qur’an 110) two thousand times at night will see the Prophet in his dream.” I believed this with the heart of a child and recited the sura two thousand times and went to sleep. That night, even if it lasted until the morning, I would recite it again; for my desire to see the Prophet in my dream could make me sacrifice not just one night, but hundreds of nights. So, if a person’s heart is truly in something, then he should definitely seek ways to obtain it.

To conclude, as much as wishing to attain good conduct, our efforts to realize this purpose are important. These two are the halves of a whole. And prayer, in many respects, is such an important act that it cannot be substituted by anything else.

Notes

1. Doing something purely for the sake of God.

2. See Hujurat 49:12.